Choices
by Lyssa Terald
Summary: They were Soulmates. That much was certain. They'd fought and clashed and railed against it, against the very thing that was drawing them together, but together they were-for better or worse. Now, they just had to ride out the rest of the storm with those that had held them together through the good times and the bad. Loki/Tony Piece inspired by series: Here Comes Your Man
1. Apples

_A/N: This is a small addition that another author allowed me to write in addition to her series. Tried to make it as much a standalone as possible, but the link for Part One of _Here Comes Your Man_ is /works/1036973 (still _very_ worth a read even if I wasn't writing this up). _

_Basic theme is: Soulmates exist in Asgard. It's a rare and cherished thing and when it happens it is meant to be a thing of joy. What happened between Loki and Tony was a little different due to Tony's Arc Reactor interfering with all things "magic." Events in Iron Man 3 removed that obstacle and the bond asserted itself. What happened from there was a clash of their personalities before they realized they wouldn't be rid of each other and they worked out some semblance of a relationship with a little interference from Thor. In the process, however, they forgot two very important facts: Pepper and Sigyn._

* * *

She stood on the edge of the bridge, looking over the vast tree that towered above everything. It was enormous, more than three times her arm span in width and quite possibly three times that in the circumference of its trunk. Every branch as far up as she could make out was heave with apples whose skin glinted a warm gold in the afternoon sunlight. Though the tree was magnificent, eventually her gaze traveled down its length to the system of gnarled roots at its base where a solitary figure stood sentry and regarded her with ancient, amber eyes from within a face that was pretty but not beautiful in the way the lips drew down in a frown and the eyebrows drew together in concern.

"Sigyn," the sentinel said, tipping her head towards the female who had entered her territory. "I confess myself uncertain if I should offer my sympathies or my congratulations in light of these events."

A wry smile touched Sigyn's lips as she tucked a stray, dark strand of hair behind her ear. "I confess I find myself at a loss as to which is proper myself, Idunn. It should be..._joyous_...that Loki has found a Soulmate, but I do not feel joyous. I feel..." she stopped as the emotions swamped through her and threatened to overwhelm what restraint she had left. Instead, she shook her head and continued, "I find it..._humorous_, I suppose...that even you knew before I did of this...turn of events."

Something dark flickered through Idunn's gaze as she regarded the younger Asgardian. "In that case, _Loki_ has my sympathies. You are not a creature whose displeasure I would provoke." Silence settled between them for a moment before she said, "You know I cannot give you what you seek, no matter your reasons for it."

"You cannot freely give it, no," Sigyn said as she stepped from the bridge. "All things come with a price."

"You are not the first to come to me for this. No one has ever chosen to make the trade," Idunn warned. She watched Sigyn close the distance between them and sighed. "Admittedly, your reasons for coming are different. You _know_ what I will ask, how it is that I test the mettle of those who come. I cannot give you what you seek."

Sigyn stopped within arm's reach and regarded the sentinel with wary resignation. "You know what has happened, you know my history, yet you are wrong in what I seek. I have seen the agony inflicted by the passing of a Soulmate and tended to the aftermath of that kind of torn grief and heartache." She paused for a moment and recalled the last pair of Soulmates that had fallen to her care in the passing of one and the aftermath of the loss for the other. "If I can prevent that for him, I will." She looked at Idunn, her expression suddenly fierce. "I know what I ask and I am willing to pay the price. I will bear your test."

"You will know regret," Idunn said softly, but it was more statement now than an attempt to dislodge the determined set of Sigyn's shoulders.

Sigyn just smiled a little at that, an expression that was pinched between amusement and pain. "Yes, but the choice is mine and I can live with that, but come. First you must test my mettle."

Idunn studied the other female for a long moment even as her knuckles tightened over the hilt of her _Firebrand_ dagger. "You truly are stubborn," she sighed and unsheathed the blade. "Strip. There will be no magic, no diverting it. There will only be the blade through flesh and your tolerance for the pain of these fifty marks." The dark blue healer's robes Sigyn wore pooled at her feet. Her tunic followed along with her breeches until she wore only her under garments. She stepped away from her clothes and held out her hands to Idunn.

After that, there were no more words, no more expressions. When Idunn gripped her wrist, the first bite of the dagger into her flesh was like the drag of fire through her blood and it pulled from her a startled gasp. The second, third, and fourth mark were no different and when Idunn paused to study the flow of crimson down her arm, she had to grit her teeth against the throbbing of the pain in time with her heart. Then, Idunn drew the blade across the first marks and it was like the skin of her arm wanted to crawl in on itself. By the tenth mark, she was sweating and breathing in controlled bursts.

Again, Idunn paused and studied her handiwork. Fifteen marks, blood pumping steadily from the wounds to drip into the dirt. She switched to Sigyn's other arm and held the blade just over the unmarred skin, touching but not slicing. She waited until Sigyn opened her eyes and held her gaze before she made the next mark. It was just like before, fire racing through her blood and sweat gathering, but it was with the twenty-fifth mark that the feeling changed, that it spread through her body like the slow drip of acid against her skin and a scream caught in her throat. She started to yank her hand back, Idunn's grip loosening and the blade pausing above the next mark.

_No. Stop. __**Loki.**_The only reason she had ever needed to endure Asgard, to endure the loss of children and family. _Loki. _Tears pricked at her eyes as memories of a thousand years of _love_ and _patience_ and _bitter pain_ flashed through her mind. His laugh, the glint of his eyes when he had done something clever, the way his lips quirked when he _looked_ at her, those moments he was so wholly focused on a new spell. _Her. Done_. All gone, in a heartbeat. He would never be hers again. _Is it worth the pain? _Her fingers closed around Idunn's wrist before the contact was broken even as the tears slid free. _Yes._ It had always been her answer, _always_.

The pain lanced through her again, somehow less, somehow more, but it was _there. _From her arms to her shoulders and then across her ribs and still the scream did not escape her. _Then it was done_. Idunn had released her, stepped back and wiped the blood from the blade, but still she stood rooted to the spot, her every nerve sending fire through her still. "Sigyn."

She took a shuddering breath and wrapped her arms around her sides. Her head felt light and she could only stare in semi-shock at Idunn as the world spun slowly around them. Then, there was only the weight of a golden apple plucked from its branch and the soft, murmuring sounds of the binding and the assent and knowledge of the fate that awaited.

* * *

The _"I do not wish to fight with you"_ hung between them like a tangible thread stretched taut across marble flooring and, for once, Thor was glad that his father had dismissed his council before they spoke. For a moment, he wondered how he had come to have this conversation, this _argument_, and then he need only recall the precarious situation on Midgard which had only just sorted itself between his brother and Tony Stark.

"I will not give this mortal of his an apple. It will only set expectations that will not always be fulfilled," Odin said, softer this time.

Thor had to chew on the first two answers before he settled on, "You would deny Loki the chance to spend a lifetime with a soulmate? Simply for your dislike of the choice that I have made? I do not ask this for Jane, but for _him_. I would ask that you do not condemn him to suffer for the rest of his life once Stark has passed and there is nothing left of their bond but darkness and pain."

There was another short silence as Odin regarded his son and heir, weighed his own answer and said, "He has Sigyn. He would survive the mortal's death and live on. Mortals die, it is the nature of their species to become sick and pass on. You would ask me to bend the laws for this one?"

It was in the _tone_ he used and the creases around his mouth and eyes that Thor knew that this was an uphill battle he would not win. Some part of him stepped back from the image he had always held of his father and..._let go_. Before he could phrase his next words, before he could even choose them, there came the muffled sound of raised voices the snarled response of another's voice. Almost reluctantly, the large doors to the council room were nudged in and into the room slipped the lithe form of the dark haired, green-eyed _Sigyn_ whose hot glare was still being cast over her shoulder even as she nervously rolled a golden orb between her palms.

When she finally looked at them, her expression went flat and Thor could tell even beneath the thick, blue healer's robes she wore when her shoulders stiffened. She surveyed them and Thor had to shift uncomfortably beneath that blank look she usually favored his father with. "Well, this is awkward," she commented mildly. "Am I interrupting something?"

Odin looked at his son, briefly, and said, "No, we were just finishing a long overdue conversation." He tried to smile then, but it came off as more of a pained grimace, "Do tell, what is it that brings you here?"

He knew the dismissal even when it wasn't said in so many words. With a nod and a quiet, "Sigyn," as he turned to walk away from them, he came up short when one of her small hands pressed against his breastplate, stalling him from walking past her. Her other hand pressed the golden orb against her stomach even as Thor gazed at her with a mixture of pity and curiosity.

"Funny, that you should use such phrasing, All-Father, for it is my husband that brings me here. Would that I had known _weeks_ ago we need not have had this conversation," she said and Thor could hear the slight rise in her voice, the change in her pitch. _Anger_. "Though had you ever done right by us we need never have done this at all."

Odin, for all his powers, could say nothing to that and, for one moment, she seemed lost. The blank expression slipped and Thor could see the twisting grief and _pain_ winding its way through her features and her eyes before she was in control of herself again. Her palm pressed a little more firmly to his chest and, when he took a step back, she slipped her touch away to fold her hand over the little orb entirely.

"Shall I repeat the most _fascinating_ tale that Heimdal has told me?" she asked. In their silence, she glanced sidelong at Thor and continued, "No? Well, I'll repeat it anyways since it's a tale worth repeating. It starts with Loki and a mortal by the name of Tony Stark and ends with them being Soulmates."

Thor jerked around to stare at his father, uncertain of what to expect, but grim _resignation_ was not it. For all that his father had had his differences with Loki and Sigyn, he had never once stopped to consider that Odin would not have passed along the news along to Sigyn. That she had not come to _him_-brother in all but blood-with her questions and her concern hadn't surprised him. She was a healer and Asgard had fought enough battles recently to keep _all_ of their healers busy for weeks on end.

"Our warriors needed your full attention and your power," Odin replied softly. "You saved a great many lives without that distraction."

She laughed then, a deep throated bark of a sound that was neither amused nor entertained. Her chin fell to her chest and she closed her eyes to gather her thoughts. When she looked at Odin again, it was a hard look that had Thor watching her. "I have worked my magic to the point of exhaustion and beyond with more _distractions_ than the news that my husband has a Soulmate. Did I not prove that when I helped you to restore some semblance of peace with the Jotuns after Laufey died and Loki _fell?_ This? News that he has a Soulmate…it is not devastating, but it is something that I would have _liked_ to have known and made the decision for myself. I'd-" she cut herself off and bit down on the words that she would have used. She looked away, swallowed, and continued, "No, never mind. What is done is done. I came here only to tell you that I take my leave, that whatever contact Loki has with Asgard in the future will be of his own desire. I am done. I will heal for you and Asgard no more."

The shocked silence that followed then wasn't a comfortable one. Odin's gaze sharpened upon her until she looked back at him and held that gaze. Thor, though, was simply trying to sort through the complicated tangle of emotions that her words had caused.

"You swore an oath, a binding one, when you became one of Asgard's healers. You cannot simply abandon your duty," Odin said.

Sigyn shrugged one shoulder. "For all that it is _was_ a binding oath, I swore loyalty for so long as you held true to me. I swore to use my power and my gifts to defend Asgard for all of eternity for so long as faith was upheld." She paused and looked down at the little golden orb she was cradling and turned her palms up and away from her stomach to show-Thor's heart leapt into his throat-an _apple_ and not a bauble. Odin's one eye focused intently on that apple. She looked up again and her eyes glittered. "For all that you speak of _loyalty_ and _justice_ and _balance_, there has never been anything to balance the loss of the sons you _took_ from me," she snarled softly. "Narvi and Vali were _innocent_ of Baldur's death and in the end _you brought him back_. So, their deaths were meaningless and meant to do nothing but satisfy that revenge crazed…_mother_…of his." She pressed the apple to her stomach again and Odin met her eyes and he was the one to look away first. "You broke loyalty and faith the night you took them from me. Yet, I have never demanded a price in return. There was nothing to equal their deaths or the lives they _could_ have had. Nothing until now. I have made my bargains to gain this apple." She looked tired then, in the way her lips quirked in a half, bitter smile and in the dark lines beneath her eyes. "Loki will have his Soulmate for a thousand-odd years, more if they will accept my healings, and you will not have to be concerned about Ragnarok for at least another hundred odd years. Is that not worth it in the end, losing my skills like this?"

She turned from them then and walked six paces to touch a hand to the door. "And if I forbid you from taking that apple from these halls? What then?" Odin asked.

When she turned her head to look at him, her eyes were glittering again and a half-smile touched her lips as she studied him. "I am Sigyn of the _Vanaheim_ and I am not yours to command."


	2. Greetings

When they approached across the Bi-frost escorted by a number of guards, Heimdall was unsurprised to see Sigyn and Thor. He had, after all, answered the questions that had sent Sigyn on her hunt and broken the last strands of her patience. That Thor had stood by her through her revelation of her decision spoke volumes of what had happened. That the prince was here, now, made him almost smile. For however long they had been banished to Midgard, he would See that no undue harm followed after them for their decisions.

* * *

The pillar of bright light mixed with lightning had become-perhaps-too common of an occurrence but when Thor was deposited with a bemused female on their rooftop, Jarvis wasn't the least bit concerned. What _did_ interest him was the composition and biological structure of the apple that the female held when he began his routine scans of all guests that entered the Tower.

The female paused on the threshold when she focused on the little rays of light that slid over her and Thor. Tentatively, she reached a hand out passed it through the light. Fascinated, Jarvis repeated the scan and watched her expression morph into one of curiosity rather than resigned pain. Her palm turned up and Jarvis expanded the scan to encompass her whole body, watching the swirl of energy within her pool into her palm and produce a bright orb of light. When he focused the scan entirely on the orb, she gave a laugh of delight.

"What is this, Thor? This is nothing that Loki would do and no magic that I am familiar with. I do not even feel its energy passing through me," she said.

While Thor thoughtfully eyed the ceiling and sought the words to explain, Jarvis continued in his scan of the energy she had conjured. The energy in her palm was very similar in composition to the energy he could detect flowing through her body, but it lacked the biological composition that made up living bodies. So far as he could detect, the energy was held together by nothing but itself. It was a curiosity logged for later analysis.

"It…_He_…is Jarvis. Jarvis is…like Heimdal, the watcher and guardian of this tower, but he resides _within_ the tower itself. He assesses all new occupants and guests with those lights to determine whether they are of hostile intent or not," Thor said.

"It is a very close assessment," Jarvis replied as the scans were logged and the results assimilated into his internal memory. "However, the scans also determine species as well as what materials you carry on yourself. As well, they are routinely used monitor the physical health of those entering the Tower. As I have no record of you ever visiting Stark Industries or any of its facilities and there are no other known sightings of you known to date, I must assume that you are one of Thor's companion's from Asgard." The last he directed to the small female.

She closed her palm and smiled up at the ceiling. "My _name_ is Sigyn and I was once a Healer for Asgard, but that is no longer my primary function. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Jarvis was silent for a moment, then answered, "It is good to meet you as well, Ms. Sigyn. The Liesmith is out at the moment, but if you would like I can pass along a request to Mr. Stark and alert him that you are present." He took note of the way that her face closed off at the mention of his creator and the other occupant of the tower and reassessed her as a possible threat with low probability of turning hostile. Thor had, after all, never _allowed_ any of his companions who accompanied him to attack anyone within the Tower.

Her free hand slipped back to the apple that she cradled something precious. "Please, inform him that I have come to impart upon him the means by which he may spend one of our lifetimes with Loki as his soulmate," she said quietly.

* * *

Not ten miles away, Loki released the spell which showed him the new occupants of the Tower and closed his eyes against the momentary curl of guilt and shame before he quashed it. When the perimeter spell had been triggered, he had expected Thor, not Thor _and_…Sigyn. He snapped the book shut that he had been looking at and ignored the other patrons as he slid the book back onto its shelf and departed the store. No one blinked twice when he vanished from the crowded sidewalk.

* * *

When he had said, "…_let your healers fix…"_ and agreed to try for a thousand-odd years with the god of mischief, he hadn't known, would never have guessed it would have come to _this_. When Jarvis had relayed her name and message then asked him what he wanted to do, he'd been speechless…for once. Tony stood in the middle of his garage, a wrench still in hand paused in the middle of the repairs he had been doing for one of his suits. Carefully, he set it down and grabbed a rag to try and wipe the oil from his fingers as he said, "Pull up feed of where they are. Let me see her."

When Jarvis complied and showed him that Thor and the female were still in top floor living room, he wasn't sure what he had been expecting, but this…this hadn't been it. Objectively speaking, she was gorgeous despite the plain, blue robes that she wore. Dark black hair bound back, light olive skin, high cheekbones, and a fit build. Her hands were still cradled around the golden apple that she held and her head was turned away from Thor who looked to be trying to engage her in some form of conversation. After a solid minute of trying different tactics, he could see when Thor gave up and joined her by the window to gaze at the city below.

"She hasn't said anything since she spoke to me," Jarvis advised him. "I am…uncertain of what to make of her. Based upon Norse mythology, the name is indicative of-"

"I _know_," Tony said, swiping the feed from the screen. "But _why_ would she claim that name? She can't…It…Loki hasn't mentioned anything about his past to me. Everything I know is based on old myths and bits and pieces that Thor has dropped. It…_Why_ would she-?" he stopped and stared at the now black screen before he rubbed a hand through his hair and sighed. He knew, abstractly, that the best way to get answers was to go up and actually _speak_ with her, but he was reluctant to do so. "Give me your assessment of her," he said.

* * *

Twenty minutes after they had arrived, the metal door on the far side of the room dinged and slid open. Thor watched with some trepidation as Tony stepped into the room and paused to study them. Tony's eyes slid to Sigyn and stayed there, like he was assessing something. She turned her head and met his gaze.

"So," she said conversationally. "You're the one." The blank expression she wore broke and the pieces slid away to show the things she had tried to hide: pain, resignation, heartbreak, and…yes, just a flash, but…_jealousy._

"And you're…" Tony started, but there were, apparently, there were no good words to describe her.

"Sigyn, yes," she filled for him. "And you're Tony Stark, Soulmate to my husband." The way she said his name with the curl of accent wasn't disdainful, but he wasn't entirely certain of what to take from it. "I understand the original circumstances of your bonding were unpleasant. For that, I am sorry, but I also understand that you have made your peace. Is that correct?"

"That's one way of putting it," Tony laughed, recalling the kidnapping and the events that followed. Her lips quirked upwards in response and she tilted her head. He resisted the urge to fidget under the way her gaze seemed to sharpen on him. "Look, I know what Jarvis said about your message, but if you're here to stake a claim and try to scare me off, you'll have to do a whole lot better than this." Her eyes shifted to a point just beyond his shoulder and a hint of something softer crept into her expression.

Even without looking, he knew who it was, as if the shift and pull of emotions wasn't enough between them, Sigyn's expression told him everything. He didn't turn, didn't want to see that guilt and touch of longing reflected in the face of the one he had chosen, the one that had cost him so much to come to terms with. Instead, he looked at Thor, who looked as lost and torn as he felt. Well, he figured, at least there was someone else in their tiny, messed up world who understood.

"She does not need to try, Stark, to stake a claim. Hers is a thousand years old bought with blood and strife and if she _were_ to try and 'scare you off,' all she need do is simply desire that you be gone and she would find a way to do so," Loki said quietly, stepping to Tony's side from where he had teleported into the room. He was wearing a variation of his usual green, gold, and black attire. "Hers is a power that is similar to mine though her nature is contradictory."

She laughed at that and scrubbed a hand across her face. "The courts used to laugh at us. 'Chaos tamed by _fidelity_,' they whispered. How far from the truth they were," she sighed. Dropping her hand to her side, she held out the apple and stepped forward. Loki's gaze dropped to it and everything about him seemed to freeze. "After the last time, after what was said and _done_, even then I'd hoped we would still find a way to work, to move past it, but you've made your choices."

"Iduun does not give her apples without a price. What bargains did you make?" Loki asked.

"Bargains that were mine to make, dear husband," she answered. "I give it to you because I _want_ to, not because I am forced into it. I will perform the healings, as well, if Stark allows it and he is still willing to go forward with this."

"That-"

"They were _mine_ to make," she interrupted gently and closed the distance between them to take his wrist and turn his palm up so she could deposit the apple in it. "Take it or not, but you've made your decision. Your presence here tells me enough of that. I know it was not intentional and that you had no choice in whether or not it happened, but it happened and you've chosen him."

Loki held her steady gaze again and, before she could register the building of the spell, he had teleported the both of them away, leaving Tony scowling at the spot where they had been. "Jarvis," he started and then paused when he caught Thor's expression.

"He won't have taken her far, just far enough away to have words in private," Thor said.


	3. Partings

Indeed, "far enough away" was out to the very location where he had first seen Tony. They stood looking at each other, her hand still clasped around his wrist. The wind that whispered past them was the only sound for a moment. Then, he pushed the sleeve of her robe back a fraction and studied the wounds he had but glimpsed. They were deep and _raw_ and climbed up her arm in a spiral, crisscrossed pattern. "Her dagger is called _Firebrand._ How many did you take?"

She pulled her hands from his, leaving him holding the apple and she could have gone, could have left it at that, but…_concern_ and worry were etched into his face and, _oh,_ that was unfair. How long had it been since he'd _looked_ at her like _that?_ A hundred years? More than that. But this wasn't about _them_. It was about _closure_ and _enough_.She pulled at the tie that held the robes closed and shrugged them from her shoulders. His eyes widened as they caught on her elbows and she could not bear the dawning horror that flashed through his eyes.

Yes, her tunic was more or less drenched in blood. Yes, she had not healed herself, not yet and maybe not ever. These were wounds she had taken for _him_ and if pain lingered for a little longer then that was alright. He reached out for her, then, and she stepped back, shrugging her robes back over her shoulders and securing the knot again. When she glanced up at him, she had to swallow against the hard look he was studying her with. "Do not pursue this, Loki. I accepted her terms and weathered her test. _Let it rest._"

"What bargains did you make?" he asked, softer this time and stepped towards her again. "What pain was worth this price, this _blood?_ Have I not made you suffer enough?" He lifted her chin and rested his forehead to hers.

She took a shuddering breath and closed her eyes against his touch. "I have loved you through it all, through every loss, through every trick and lie, through the jests, and the games. I have loved you through the battles and the carnage. I loved you when times were good, when we held our children whole and live, when it was just the two of us and we _lived_. Your magic and your lies, your scars and your fragmented sanity, I loved it all. _That_ is why I took these wounds, why I _endured_ when you _swore_ to me you could love no more, when you told me you were _through._" Her eyes fluttered open and he saw reflected there the _frustration_ and the _pain_ of _a hundred years_.

"This will only give him a thousand years, at _best_," he said, the words almost breaking. "In the end, he will never live as long as we. Yes, I have chosen a Soulmate for the rest of _his life_, but…you would see us end when there is still a future to be held?"

She could read the fury and the hurt in his gaze and didn't need to be his Soulmate to know he was hiding the _fear_ of the loss that the death of a Soulmate could bring, the empty gnawing _ache _that consumed to remaining individual until nothing was left _but_ that emptiness. All it took was the memory of the last Soulmate pair that had fallen into her care at the end of the husband's days. The wife had not lasted the year and all she, as a healer, had been able to do was keep the physical discomfort at bay until the other Asgardian had passed, but it only stiffened her resolve.

"You ask for the impossible," she returned, matching his tone. "Left to you, you would try to find a way to keep us both and only hurt us all. I will not share and I will not ask of you this choice. Do this for us both, Loki, and _let me go_. You can have a life, a _partnership_ with him, but I will not stand to be tossed aside or made to wait once more." She paused and let her breath catch even as she felt his grip tighten on her wrist and saw the flash of curling _guilt_. Tears glittered unshed on her lashes, but she didn't break his gaze. "Do not make me live like this, not again, because I will only grow to hate."

"And yet you would ask of me the impossible, as well," he whispered.

"No," she returned. "I would ask of you the possible. I would ask of you to see through that which you have already chosen. I would ask of you not to turn away from a Soulmate's bond." She could see when he saw the sense, saw the way that he wavered, and knew the moment he broke. "You will not lose me as a friend, you will not lose me as a comrade nor even as a companion, but we lost each other when you swore that you were done. So, _please_, Loki, let me go. Let me go for good this time." His fingers fell away from her wrist.

* * *

The _guilt_ that Tony felt punch through the bond and curl into his very bones sent him staggering to the couch where he sat down heavily "So, she's why you said our bond wasn't a marriage," Tony said, trying for light and failing. "Is this normal? Soulmate bonds randomly settling on people who have been married for a long time? If so, I can't imagine the family reunions. They must get hostile."

Thor looked at him from his spot by the window and regarded his teammate. "All Soulmate bonds are different, as unique as the individuals it settles on. That Loki has been married in the past has no bearing on that. His and Sigyn's marriage is…" he considered it "…_was_ nothing that could have been considered normal, either. Loki has ever been known for causing chaos and mischief where he goes and Sigyn has always been the constant that he returned to. He could leave for a hundred years on end and still be able to expect her to be there upon his return. Even the children that my father took from them could not break her from him." He looked out the window again, that _moment_ he should not have seen playing through memory again. "It wounded them deeply, yes, but they remained…together…in a fashion. Loki has never given any sign of wishing to release her from her vows and she has never asked it of him. Between anyone else, such a marriage may not have worked at all."

Tony was spared having to come up with a response when Loki materialized back into the living room, golden apple in hand and a shell shocked expression decorating his features. The guilt was still there, still present, but through it echoed a word that gripped him just as hard as it did Loki: _gone._


End file.
